3DS perfectly follows the PS3 path to success

[MaxwellGT2000]

HappySqurriel said:

MaxwellGT2000 said:

HappySqurriel said:

Mr Khan said:

I would like to point out on the issue of price that 3DS is sold at a profit, while PS3 was sold for a very heavy loss even at that excruciating price, therefore even if price *were* a putoff for consumers (and survey says it certainly isn't for now), Nintendo's got more flexibility on the matter than Sony "$200 loss per unit" did.

I'm still not convinced that the price of the 3DS is the problem some people make it out to being ...

It is more expensive than Nintendo handhelds have typically been, but it isn't that expensive compared to most portable electronics, there have been other handheld systems that have done well at that price, and even after 6 years on the market people were buying the DS at (roughly) $200. On top of that, I'm still not convinced that the NGP won't be so expensive that it makes $250 suddenly seem like a bargain; after all, if you look at how the exchange rate between the US dollar and Yen has changed over the last 6 years, if they maintained the American price relative to the Japaneese price, the DS would have launched at (roughly) $225 and the PSP would have launched at (roughly) $375. Hypothetically speaking, if the NGP is announced to be $399 lots of people will see $250 as being an affordable system.

This is actually true, forgot the name of the effect but kids use it all the time when wanting toys, "you can get me this 20 dollar toy!" "thats too much" "how about this one?" *pricetag 40 dollars* "you know that 20 dollar toy doesn't look so bad now"

But to counter your statement the NGP actually has to HAVE a price first for that effect to happen. 

I don't disagree ...

I just think that the main influence the NGP is having on this discussion at this point in time is that a lot of people are not being realistic with their expectations; and this is reflecting on their opinion of the 3DS. To a certain extent, this reminds me of watching countless Playstation fans bash the XBox 360 for being $400 because they were certain that the PS3 wouldn't cost more than $300.

Indeed, honestly the PSP is the closest thing to compare it to, 250 v 250 at launch, both have multiple applications, and both are handhelds.

The only difference in 2004 vs 2011 is expectations, people actually do expect to pay more now-a-days with recession and weaker US dollar vs 2004.  I do agree some people are putting TOO MUCH weight into the price tag as it still isn't something people see as outragous when they pay over that for a MP3 and video player, but in the case of 3DS they can get a game, MP3, and video player in 3D for about the same amount and well 3D does have it's appeal by the looks of it since people will pay more to watch even a meh movie like Avatar in 3D